Separating the A-1 from the A-4:Armament on the Ju-88A-1 was entirely of MG15 in makeup, with 3 or 4 installed. There was only the one in the ventral bay. The Ju88A-4 carried 3x MG81 guns and a MG81 Z "twin" in the ventral gondola. The MG15 fired only at a peak of 1000 rounds per minute, but the MG81 fired upwards of 1500 rounds per minute. The MG81Z fired 3000 rounds per minute! Some sources say as much as 3200 rounds per minute. Not pertinent to AH just yet, MG15s were limited to 75-rd drum magazines, whereas MG81s were belt-fed in continuous ammo belts.
The A-1 had a max bombload of 2500kg, internal or external. It didn't have the wheel struts to take the heavier loads of the A-4 variant. I believe the A-1 only had 1 inboard ETC250 bombrack under each wing, where the A-4 has 2 under each. The A-1 had many problems with bombload restrictions due to the ranges it needed to fly in the BOB. It often had small bombloads of 1000kg or 500kg so that it could use half of the bombbay storage for an extra fuel tank. Much like our B-17 it COULD carry heavier loads, but only at much shorter ranges. Maximum bomb load limited its range to 700 miles or so, which was barely more than the spitfires and bf109Es of the time. The A-4 could carry more fuel and more bombload, making it an overall more effective bomber.
Part of this was due to the more powerful engines, each about 200hp stronger (400 total) than the A-1's engines. This allowed for better armor plating in the bombers, better fuel loads, better bomb loads, and other general performance and handling benefits. However, these engines weren't available in any real quantities until early 1941 (after the BOB's general time frame). This extra horsepower alone allowed an increase in the gross weight of 3,700 lbs, and a top speed increase across the board of 15mph. This boost in speed came along with an increase in bombload, AND armor plates fitted on the sides of the cockpit and the ventral gondola, which the A-1 lacked.
I should remind you that our hurr1 and our ju88a4 top speeds differ only by 20mph as it is. YES, it is a problem that AH doesn't limit bombers' speeds/engine settings a bit more, but going from the ju88a4 we have to a ju88a1 from the proper era would almost DOUBLE the performance gap of our pursuing hurricanes. The top speed of the A-1 when it was EMPTY was 280mph. Our A-4 does 290 WITH an internal bombload. Cruising speed was about 220mph (on the A-1), though that won't mean much for the Aces High crowd.
The A-1 had fabric covered ailerons of a free-floating type for less effective control surfaces and worse maneuverability. It had an unbalanced rudder as well, which was redesigned to have a balanced top in the A-4. That reduces forces required to achieve certain rudder positions and generally makes a control surface more responsive. The A-4, along with its extended wings, redesigned the ailerons to be metal covered and of a more modern design (similar to what you might think a WW2 plane had). The A-1 handling was rather unsatisfactory to most pilots, and when the A-4 came around they marvelled at how light and nimble the controls were. The A-4 had a wingspan of 65 feet 7.5 inches, which was a full 7 feet more than the A-1 with 58 feet 6 inches. The combination of extra wing area, redesigned control surfaces, much more power, altogether changed the airframe from a poor one to a great one. It wasn't until the A-4 that thoughts of making this airframe into a heavy fighter or night fighter began. The A-1 was far worse in most aspects of maneuvering.
An example of the aileron differences:
Another aspect is that the A-1 was much more fragile. It had to be very careful with weight loadings before takeoffs. It had to be balanced/loaded perfectly. More so than most planes, even other German ones. It could NOT dive unless it was done very carefully and specifically. It structurally wasn't as capable (G forces and whatnot) as the A-4 was. Along with the lack of armor plates around the crew compartment, this means that IF we had a Ju88A-1 in our BOB scenarios, when a hurricane caught up to it and shot at it, it would go down in flames (or in pieces) much more quickly.
The Ju88A-1 was undergoing inprovements during the BOB and these were being incorporated into the A-5 and A-4 variants. Whereas a few planes at the Ju88A-4 standard were serving during the end of the BOB they were field modifications or depot-level conversions most likely. The Ju88A-4s combat debut was really the invasion of Soviet Russia in 1941. The A-4 (and the subvariants that were almost identical to the A-4 but with specific differences like life rafts or desert gear) was the most-produced Ju88 variant in the war.... It just isn't representative of the Battle of Britain or anything much before June 1941.
It is NOT just a claim that it was slower. Though, that is a big part of it. It was almost an entirely different plane. One might as well say "the 109E is slower than the 109F" and leave it at that. They are worlds apart in overal capability and performance, as well as in exterior shape. Their payloads, ranges, and weapons are different. Their roll rates, climb rates, dive rates are all different.
And THAT, my dear friends, is why the Ju88A-1 would be a major benefit to our BOB scenarios/setups, as compared to the Ju88A-4 we currently have. Thank you for reading.
